When I was invited to write something “equipping”, I’ll admit that I was a little stumped. When it comes to writing these sorts of long-form articles, I tend to struggle a bit with keeping myself focused on one topic or idea. I have an interest in justice, an interest in peace – all vying for my limited attention and word count. Even further, I wanted to write something uniquely “Zech” for you all. I wanted to write something that could only be from my own desk; something that nobody else would think of as an equipping piece. As I bounced various ideas through my head and through conversations with friends and colleagues, one idea kept coming back to the forefront. That idea has influenced the way I look at missional work, at theological work, and at my own personal spirituality: learning and appreciating Biblical Greek. My sense of vocation, my understanding of who we are and what we are called to do as the body of Christ – it all fundamentally changed when I began engaging the Bible with a critical eye and a desire to understand it in its original form.
Now before I scare the rest of you away, I think it is important to understand that I’m not going to spend this blog post teaching the basics of Greek: that would go poorly on many levels and only God knows how well attempting to write large swathes of Biblical Greek in Microsoft Word will go. Instead, I want to show you what this pursuit taught me about approaching scripture and hopefully equip you to think a bit differently about the spiritual text that we often take for granted.
And it’s in that last bit where I want to start because I really do think that the vast majority of Christianity takes the existence of the Bible for granted. The Bible as we know it didn’t magically pop into existence just in time for King James to slap his name on it and give it to the English Church; it was written over the course of centuries and passed from one culture to another across several languages. The Hebrew Scriptures (which we commonly call the Old Testament) were most likely part of an oral tradition that molded and shaped their stories to reflect the God that they found in their own experiences. The evidence is right at the beginning with two separate accounts of creation. Maybe you have noticed it before or maybe not, but we have the beginning of an account of creation in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth…” and then a bit further the story begins again in Genesis 2:4b: “In the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens…” One particular thing to point out between these two accounts is the way they address God, with Genesis 1 using the Hebrew word “elohim” and Genesis 2 using “YHWH elohim.”Scholars have long used that fact to show that there were different groups of people weaving their own tales of God and God’s work in the world into this text. Those stories would continue to be molded and shaped well into the time of Jesus, and it was around that time that they were translated into Greek in a volume that would be called the Septuagint.
However, after Jesus’s life and death, there was a bit of time before we really began seeing those events written down into the Gospel narratives, which makes sense considering Jesus said that some of them would still be alive when he returned. Once the original generation of disciples began passing on, we see Gospel accounts come into focus. Now, we can get into the weeds of discussing extra-canonical texts like alternative Gospels and other letters, but that trek might be better saved for another day. What is important to know is that it took a good long while for the books that became our Bible to be gathered together. But the linguistic journey of scripture continues as the Pope in the late 300s tasked Jerome of Stridon to translate the Gospels and, being an overachiever, he ended up bringing most of Scripture into the common language of the era – Latin. Fast forward a few centuries and most western European countries were getting Bibles published in their language, including good old King James.
“So what’s the point?” I hear you saying to your computer screen. Well, two things. First, it means that what we read now as our sacred and holy text is (at minimum) one level of translation done by a group or groups of people with a specific goal or agenda in mind. That is why you have very formal equivalence translations like the NASB (which means that they translate word-for-word as much as possible) or dynamic equivalence translations like the NIV (which means that they tend to translate thought-by-thought, fudging the exact translations of words to make the sentences flow better), with a whole spectrum of translations or paraphrases in between and on either side of those examples. But second, it matters because the original thoughts or ideas of the scripture writers are culturally and linguistically removed from us and that changes the ways we approach scripture.
One of the simplest examples is the wordplay that gets lost in translation, and one of my favorite examples is found in the second creation story. God names the first human Adam, and we just nod our heads and go “okay”. But when you understand the Hebrew you understand that God literally made a joke. Because God’s name for Adam in Hebrew sounds incredibly close to the word for “dirt”, as in the dirt that God formed him from. This means that yes, God basically calls the first human “mudman” and yes, God definitely has a sense of humor. And that is just one of many different examples of clever wordplay and puns that sometimes get a bit lost as we move outside of the original language and culture.
Now, the Greek scriptures have a bit less overt puns and wordplay than the Hebrew scriptures, but there is still much theologically that gets lost in our own language. The example that I always tend to jump to is in John 21, where Jesus asks Peter three times if he loves him. Now in English, this passage is a bit confusing because Jesus just seems to see how persistent Peter is in his answering. However, the passage changes substantially in meaning when it’s examined in Greek – because there are multiple words in Greek that translate to “love.” The first two times Jesus asks Peter, he uses the Greek word “agape,” which is reserved for the kind of love that God has for us. Peter responds each time with the word “phileo,” which is the love of family (think Philadelphia – city of “brotherly love”). So, Jesus asks twice, “Peter, do you love me as God loves you?” and Peter responds “Lord, you know I love you like my own family.” But the third and final time, Jesus asks with “phileo” instead of “agape”. So instead of Peter’s persistence, this story shows how Jesus is willing to meet us where we are. We are called to the impossible standard of God’s love, but God is also willing to meet us as far as we can go. We might not be able to love as much as God, but God is willing to work with as much love as we can give.
These two examples are just the surface of what changes as we translate our scriptures into a language we can understand. But more importantly, these two examples show that there is always more depth to what we can learn about our God and the ways that God interacts with the world. Minister or not, we become almost too familiar with the stories that we hear and read in the Bible. We are told the same stories of scripture over and over to the point where we have them memorized. We can recite certain parables or stories, and that collective memory of scripture contributes to the way that we make meaning of our stories, often pushing us to only interpret some scriptures in very specific ways.
For example, let’s look at the Prodigal Son in Luke (chapter 15, verses 36-50). Here is the short version of the parable: There is a family with a father and two sons. One son runs away with half the family inheritance, squanders it all on lavish living, realizes how bad of an idea that was, goes back to a forgiving dad and a less forgiving brother, and the story ends with a confrontation between the father and the brother who stayed behind. Looking at this story, I have one question:
Who is the main character?
There is a distinct chance that you would guess that the son is the main character. I was brought up thinking that, most definitely helped by hearing most sermons about the scripture focusing on that son. But, I would argue that answer is incorrect. The main character of this parable is the father, based on the way Luke writes this story down. The Jesus in Luke’s gospel tends to begin his parables with a standard phrase, “a certain man/woman/person…” (or occasionally “there was a certain man/woman/person) Some examples of this phrase being used are found in the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-8; “There was a certain rich man”), the Two Debtors (Luke 7:36-50; “A certain moneylender”), and the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37; “A man was going down to Jerusalem”). Now, when we turn back to the Prodigal Son story, what do we find? “A certain man had two sons,” not “a son went to his father…” The story, then, is about the father more than the son. Now, we probably decided to name the parable after the son because it fits with the two parables before it – “Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Lost Son” sounds nicer than “Lost Sheep, Lost Coin, Forgiving Father” – although I had a friend in seminary once make a compelling argument to title them “Searching Shepherd, Searching Woman, Searching Father.” But if we believe that Luke is consistent in the way he wrote Jesus’s parables, then we are challenged to realize that the story isn’t about us as the lost son (or the son that stayed behind) but about God as the forgiving father, waiting for us to come back home.
And that right there is what we gain by thinking critically and reading closely into the texts that we hold sacred – we are able to push ourselves out of a viewpoint that is only focused on us and our own particular biases. Scripture is not some mythical thing that can only be approached by someone with an MDiv or extensive theological training (it helps, but not really in the ways you expect). Scripture is the collection of stories that talk about God’s involvement in the world as told by two particular cultures with their own worldviews. And if we truly hold to the idea that the Spirit continues to move and inspire us, then we must be allowed to look at our scriptures without the burden of “that’s the only way I’ve ever heard it so it must be right.” Our traditions and our scriptures are important resources that guide us towards a better understanding of God, but if we refuse to let the Spirit move and mold those things, then we are placing our scriptures or traditions above our God.
So how can we learn to read scripture more closely? I think that there are several different points that can be helpful for us, but the first is something that we in the Church of the Brethren should be pretty good at: reading scripture in a group. Scripture passages mean different things to different people and at different times. I know that sounds obvious, and maybe to a point it is obvious, but it is worth stating nonetheless. When we read scriptures together, we have the ability to learn from one another. The insights that I bring to scripture and the insights that you bring to scripture are going to be fundamentally different because we are fundamentally different human beings with fundamentally different experiences, and that is okay. And further, the way that I look at scripture now is completely unrecognizable compared to how I looked at scripture as a student or a pastor. So, when we gather together and ask questions of scripture and the way we see it relating to our own lives, we are able to draw on that variety of experiences brought upon by our little (or not so little) clouds of witnesses and colleagues and friends and family. Being able to value the way that another person sees God in scripture allows us to move beyond a self-centered mindset towards a God-centered mindset.
Now maybe you have a group together already, then what? My next piece of advice is to start reading other versions and translations of the Bible. Now, I’m not saying that you aren’t allowed to have a particular favorite translation. Personally, I like the New Revised Standard Version for preaching and study, since it is mostly formal equivalent in its’ translation while making some concessions towards gender-inclusive language. I enjoy using the New International Version or New Century Version for working with youth/young adults since those translations use a more modern dialect and work well for empowering youth to approach scripture through phrasings that they can understand easily. Finally, I must admit that I really like the King James Version for reading the Psalms and Proverbs – the poetic sound of the older English dialect really helps those two books of scripture come alive. That being said, pushing beyond that one translation towards something new can help you see some scriptures in a new way and ask questions that would be impossible to ask otherwise. When I sit down to prepare a sermon or devotion, I tend to look at as many translations as possible to get a wider understanding of the ways we can read and interpret scripture. We are blessed with the ability to have every version of scripture ever printed on our cell phones or one Google search away – so take advantage of that resource and see what jumps out at you when you read through a new lens.
Finally, my last piece of advice is to try listening to other pastors and preachers. Much like working with a new group of people or reading a new translation, listening to a different pastor can provide new insights or a new focal point for a passage that you might otherwise think you know already. And as much as I would love to shamelessly promote some of my favorite pastors and preachers here, I don’t find that wise nor practical – especially since I didn’t tell any of them that I would be writing this (but for those in that group, you know who you are)! However, in this season where most congregations have some form of online worship, it is easier than ever to go online and listen to a different take on scripture, whether that be attending a service live or watching the video back on a site like YouTube. Take the time to learn from someone new while we have the opportunity.
Now, for the most formal “equipping” part, I do have a few resources that have proved helpful to me in my own pursuits. A great resource for getting started with new translations would be a parallel Bible. These tend to be a bit on the large and heavy side, but they will often have three or four different versions together on the same page spread, making it pretty easy to get a good idea of the different ways that scriptures can be translated and interpreted. If you are particularly interested in Greek or Hebrew, they also make parallel Bibles for those languages as well. But if that is the case, I would also recommend looking at sites, such as blueletterbible.org, which offer a lot of these resources on their web page. They aren’t always the best or most accurate, but they are a great place to start digging if you are interested in a specific verse or passage. But to reiterate an earlier point, nothing in my opinion is more essential to gaining a deeper understanding of scripture than finding a community of people to dive in with you and ask difficult and challenging questions. Whether it was a group of fellow students in my Greek exegesis course or a group Bible Study that I led, I always found myself learning more and learning better when I was learning with others.
And that is what I will leave you with. I know that this might not have been what you expected when you read a post about “equipping,” but I truly think that nothing in our spiritual lives matters more than how we approach scripture. So I hope that you can find a group to study with, whether that group already exists or is still being planned by the Spirit; I hope you can find new ways of engaging with our most sacred texts, whether it is a new translation or simply a new voice telling you what that text means to them; and most importantly, I hope you find God in new and unexpected ways in those texts which felt too familiar to change. May you always be surprised by the movement of the Spirit through us and through the ever-moving and ever-living word of God.
May it be so, my cousins in Christ. Amen.
Zechariah Houser is the Coordinator of Short-term Service for the Church of the Brethren. He previously served the Crest Manor Church of the Brethren in South Bend, Indiana. Houser is a graduate of Messiah College in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania, where he earned a bachelor of arts degree in Youth Ministry and a minor in Peace and Conflict Studies. He holds a master of divinity degree from Duke Divinity School at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.